Notebook
by SoleFaith
Summary: Carl reads the story of one of the new girls at the prison. She's sweet, charming, a bit rude, and yet her story is of someone else, someone much younger and softer than she is now. Someone who wouldn't kill anything, not even if she was about to starve to death. He finds out that his story is actually desirable. Carl/OC


"Whatcha writing?" Carl asks me as I lay on my cell bunk. I look up at him and smile, something he probably hasn't seen a lot of. Slowly I hoist myself up, using the top bunk for support.

"It's a story." I clarify, closing the notebook protectively. "My story." Carl raises an eyebrow at me and our conversation suddenly falls silent, the loss of words are able to be tasted in the air surrounding us.

He shifts awkwardly and combs his fingers back through his hair. "Sounds stupid." His gaze deepens and his pupils expand. Feeling a little hurt, I stay quiet for a moment. I can now hear the footsteps of prison residents behind me, something I couldn't have heard as well when we were talking. "Can I read?"

I am stunned for a moment. After taking a last quick glance at the book, I toss it over to my new friend. "Why not?" I shrug as he walks away, leaving the cell and flipping pages backwards to its first page.

* * *

My dad says the town we stumbled upon, is safe from the creatures. I'm not so sure I believe him. The beds are too soft, the drinks too cold and the people are too happy. It doesn't seem reasonable that after seeing your loved one's guts being ripped out by a dead person you should be able to laugh about the stupid things. So after everything, my dad urged me into the streets of WoodBury to make friends. Like hell if I am going to make friends with the other children here, what if they're too ignorant for my taste? Outside it isn't much better - when I watched from my window, the people they seem like they are in a trance.

"Miya?" Lizzie, a new comer to WoodBury like me, startles me from behind making me bite the inside of my cheek in order not to curse at her. "Do you want to play with me and Mika." She holds back a laugh at her sister's name, knowing how much it bothers me that it is so similar to my own name. "We have cards, and board games, or we can play pranks-"

I stop her, agitated and a bit anxious to get outside the gates for a bit, if I am allowed. As I begin to walk away, Mika grabs the hem of my shirt. "Please." she begs her eyes becoming orbs compared to her sister's. "We are so bored." I rub my fingers into a raw spot at my thigh as Lizzie pries her fingers off of my shirt.

"Maybe another time." Lizzie finishes, talking to her sister. "Miya is just in a bad mood." She glares at me as her sister skips to a spot under a tree were she starts talking to a little boy much younger than all three of us. Lizzie storms off, and ends up sitting under the tree as well. I groan and continue my march to the gate. As I get closer to the wall I analyze the men atop it. I've already met one of them, his name's Martinez. He was nice enough when he found us, said he didn't feel good about leaving kids to die. My dad, though suspicious didn't protest the man who offered us walls and armed guards. The other two I'm not to sure of, I mean I know their names and all but they're a bit creepy.

I look up to the top of the wall, weary of all the attention I am drawing to myself. I haven't met the leader here yet and I don't really want to. "Hey." I call up to them rocking my body back in forth without realizing it. They don't respond. Instead I see Crowley taking out a walker with a bullet. A bullet that could have been used for something more useful. I wait another moment before calling up again. They still don't respond. Instead, they laugh about some things that don't matter in this new world. I tap my foot against the pavement. "Hey pans, I'm talking to your sorry asses."

I quickly put my hand over my mouth, surprised at how rude I had just been. If my father was here he would have been absolutely pissed. Now they all turn, the mischievous glow that illuminated their faces wiped clean in a split second at the sight of me. A child. Martinez look wearily between Crowely and Merle-

* * *

"Wait a minute. You knew Merle?!" Carl calls out to me across the dining area causing me to bite my tongue in surprise. I was, and probably still am, too engrossed in my soup and lemonade to remember that Carl is deeply interested in my notebook. My cheeks turn a crimson red as many of the heads touched by the outside air had heard Carl and turned to stare at me. My eyes suddenly connect with Daryl's and I walk slowly off embarrassed. Before entering the prison, I see Carl smirk and continue reading the notebook from where he had left off.

* * *

I frown, suddenly afraid of how they will react to what I had said to them in order to get their attention, but yet the world around me doesn't stop and I hear woman talking behind me about some sort of fight they are excited to see tonight.

"What?" Merle says between clinched teeth, most likely trying to stop a snarky remark from slipping from his cracked lips. I see Martinez turn for a minute to take out another walker, yet he turns quickly back towards me in order to silently address the situation.

"I was going to ask if you could open the gates so I can take a walk." I rub the back of my neck, feeling the matted hair stuck to my neck with sweat. I adjust my gun to my hip and look up waiting for an answer.

"No way in hell." Merle growls, turning back to swing his legs over the wall. Crowley follows his movements and I hear them beginning to argue. Martinez gives me a nod and then turns back to guard the wall.

I growl and sulk back to the other children who are playing tag. Laying down in the grass, I look up at the clouds waiting for something to happen and it never did. Night fell and we were all called to a large arena where the supposed 'Governor' of the town announced the fight. At the moment I didn't feel like listening, my eyes becoming large with fear when the creatures were brought into the center. Quickly I looked to my father waiting for him to disprove of the event that was about to begin. Instead his face lit up with excitement as his cheers joined the others in the bleachers. Two of the men from WoodBury came out throwing punches as the chains holding the walker in place was given more slack. I peeked throw my fingers a second holding back tears.

One of the men now lay on the ground a bit bruised and knocked out. "Do we have any challengers?!" The Governor yells into the crowd his voice followed by more and more laughing and excitement. "So far Merle is undefeated." My eyes become crazed as the growls become evident from the outside of WoodBury. Damn noise. There is a vibration from beside me as my dad rises from where he was sitting. I look up at him, nausea filling my throat.

"Dad, what are you doing?" I whisper, my voice low and annoyed. "Dad?" He doesn't listen. Instead he raises his hand up high as everyone from the bleachers turn to him and are silent for a moment. Off to the side I hear men whispering their bets, for who knows what type of prize.

"Looks like we have a challenger." The Governor yells, his perfectly combed hair and lint-free clothing mocking to me as the noise in the area picks up. I look down at Merle and curse him under my breath. My dad is a skinny man, lots of freckles, no muscle, and circular glasses. Basically, he's a geeky telemarketer. Or at least he was a telemarketer before all of this.

"Dad, please stop." I clamp my hands together. "You're out of your mind to do this." The lights in the town dim to a flicker as the creatures are given more and more slack. He hops down into the arena and gets ready to fight. I can't watch this. I could never watch anything this dreadful. I run down the back of the stairs and bump into someone, suddenly extremely embarrassed.

"I am so sorry." I mutter without looking up at the person. I try to duck under his arm, but he stops me. Suddenly I look up to see the leader, Governor of the town looking down at me.

"Where are you going, aren't you enjoying the fight?" he asks in a charming way that would get any middle aged woman sighing in lust. I shake my head in disgust, my stare burning into him like rusted inflamed nails.

"Thanks. But, I doubt that it would interest me to see my father being beaten up by that muscle of a man." I snap back at him and his smile doesn't fade from his perfectly tamed face. I bet he even wears makeup.

* * *

Me, Lizzie, Mika, and Patrick are all playing soccer in the field when we see Carl running over to us. He waves and Lizzie waves back, blushing at him. Patrick's eyes narrow at her and me and him share a long lasting laugh hidden inside of a glance.

"Miya!" Carl calls out to us and Lizzie's blush fades away. Carl carries my notebook under his arm, a long blue bookmark sticking out the top of it. For a minute, just a minute, we remain in silence, all staring at the walkers as they claw against the chain link fence and try to get in.

"Daryl wants to talk to you." Carl finally breaks all of us out of our dazes and we turn to look at him. His smile makes dimples form in the corner of his mouth. Quickly I look toward the notebook Carl still carries, surprised that he is still holding on to it so close to him.

"You're in trouble." Patrick teases and I punch him in the shoulder. Daryl never talks to any of us, not ever. He usually only talks with the adults, or children that we now consider adults. That doesn't include us though. Me and Carl are the oldest kids at the prison that don't count as adults. So, we all figured that if any of us are talked to by Daryl, we are in huge trouble.

"Shut Up." I growl, more seriously than I should, as I make my way up towards the inner courtyard. When I look back, Carl isn't reading the book instead he has taken my place playing soccer in the field. For a moment I envy him and how easy he fits in here. If I was at the prison originally, if I wasn't the odd man out, maybe I would be in Carl's place right now.

In the courtyard I see Daryl leaning against the door frame leading up to block C. He doesn't watch me as I move up though, instead he only looks at me once I am standing right in front of him. "Am I in trouble?" I ask silently, staring at the dirt smeared steps.

"No." he grunts shifting uncomfortably under the sharpness of the looks other people are giving him.

"Then, why did you want to talk with me?" I cross my arms, feeling him looking straight at me. "If I'm not in trouble then-"

"You knew Merle?" his voice trails off and my face begins to heat up. "Cuz at lunch Carl said that you knew 'im." A thick metal ball forms in my throat as I look back down at the field where the others are playing.

"I guess." I shrug. "I didn't know him well I suppose." Daryl watches me another moment waiting to have explained to him what happened at lunch. "Carl, he's reading my notebook thing, it's like a story of what happened to me in WoodBury and there after. I didn't have time to write anything before that. Always on the run with my dad and such." Daryl's eyes widen, my dad never came here on the bus or earlier for that matter and so I don't really need to explain it to him, it's obvious what happened.

Then before silence can take over, like so many times it has before, I walk away making a dramatic hop and spin before entering the field.

* * *

**An:** _OK,__ so that's that. The FanFiction **will** continue so **stay tuned.** What do you think?_ Reviews mean a lot. Thanks guys! ~SF


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